Hashmatullah Shahidi steps down as Afghanistan’s ODI captain
Hashmatullah Shahidi has stepped down as Afghanistan’s ODI captain after more than four years and 55 matches in charge, with the board set to name a successor before next month’s tour of Ireland.
Jul 22, 2026
Afghanistan are searching for a new one-day captain. Hashmatullah Shahidi has stepped down from the role he had held since the start of 2022, closing out one of the most successful stretches the side has had in the fifty-over game.
Shahidi confirmed the decision this week, saying he had informed the Afghanistan Cricket Board and would carry on as a player. He did not point to a single reason, thanking his teammates and the support staff and calling the captaincy an honour. The board is expected to name a successor before the team’s next assignment.
A four-and-a-half-year tenure
He took charge at the beginning of 2022 and led in 55 one-day internationals, the last of them against India in June. Afghanistan won 27 of those matches, a return that would have read as optimistic when he first inherited the job. Under him the team stopped being a side that sprang the occasional upset and turned into one that walked out expecting to compete.
The peak came at the 2023 World Cup in India. Afghanistan beat England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, four results that briefly put a semi-final within touching distance before the campaign fell short. Shahidi also led the side at the 2023 Asia Cup and the Champions Trophy in 2025, keeping Afghanistan among the established one-day nations rather than on their fringes.
Runs behind the armband
The 31-year-old was rarely the most eye-catching batter in his own dressing room, playing alongside names like Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Rashid Khan, but he gave the middle order a spine. A left-hander who preferred to build an innings rather than dazzle through one, he was usually the man asked to hold things together when the strokemakers came and went. That role does not always survive a change of captain, and Shahidi has made it clear he wants to keep his place.
What comes next
Afghanistan tour Ireland in August for a five-match one-day series, and that is the deadline the board is working towards. Whoever takes over inherits a settled group and a fairly clear sense of where the team wants to be by the 2027 World Cup in southern Africa. The armband has changed hands, but the ambition Shahidi helped build is meant to outlast him.